Pokemon Fables: Green With Evil
by Emperor Serperior
Summary: Serena has decided to take a vacation to an island where she plans to ask Ash to marry her, one which happens to be part of a mysterious archipelago with strange people and Pokemon that nobody could imagine. Little does Serena know, the ship she's traveling on is owned by an Italy-obsessed madman, and her friends (new and old) will end up having to save her life from that lunatic.
1. Chapter 1: Taking Off

Hello readers, this is a continuation of The Party of Misery. The basis of the plot's start; After Serena and Ash reconcile during the ruining of the party, Serena makes a plan to go on a romantic adventure to her idea of a perfect spot to ask Ash to marry her. Little does she know though, the ship they're traveling on is owned by the infamous ex-bartender known as Trip, and his mental health has degraded to the point where he can become a potential danger to anyone he encounters. Also featuring a character from Resident Evil 4; Luis Sera.

The cast (so far) and their ages;

Ash - 27

Serena - 27)

Dawn - 25

Seraph - Unknown (Looks to be around Dawn's age.)

Shauna - 26

Levi - Unknown (Possibly young adult.)

Misty - 29

Trevor - 21

Brock - 32

Pike Queen Lucy - 35

Luis - 28 (Same age as he was in Resident Evil 4.)

Paul - 30

Trip - 36

Grace - 35

Rosa - 23

Nate - 21

Bianca - 28

Max - 24

Clemont - 30

Bonnie - 24

May - 28

Drew - 31

Cilan - 31

Iris - 27

Demealla - Unknown

NOTE: The Trip in this story is not Ash's rival from Unova, it is the character who is the primary protagonist/antagonist (depending how you play) of Facade. As the Grace in this story is also not Serena's mother, it is the deuteragonist/secondary antagonist of the game mentioned above.

**DISCLAIMER:** It is quite obvious and impossible not to notice that I am not the owner of Pokémon, Resident Evil, Facade, or any other of the used series, but what I do own is this story and the characters that I have made.

As always, read, review, and most importantly above all; enjoy.

* * *

_I can't believe I'm actually taking this cruise with Trip instead of painting with Vince, _Grace thought bitterly. _I don't care if this is the largest ship in the world, any experience I have with Trip is miserable no matter what it is!_

The unhappy artistic woman walked towards the pool area of the cruise ship, frowning at the thought of having to spend months with her hated husband, even though the ship had plenty of room for her to escape from Trip.

Just when Grace prepared to run off the ship, she already noticed that it was beginning to leave the dock, and spotted a group of young adults entering the deck. Grace felt the urge to punch something the minute she spotted Ash Ketchum coming up the stairs, and gave the trainer a glare just as fierce of what she normally provided to Trip.

_Ah SHIT,_ Grace groaned in her mind immaturely, also seeing Trip gradually coming to the scene. _Just when I thought this couldn't get any worse, I HATE MY LIFE SO MUCH!_

"Grace? You look like a bald man instead of a woman," Ash improperly greeted. "What happened to you, anyway?" The unfaithful artist looked away, her eyes indicating that she was about to cry.

"Trip caught my head on fire," she admitted somberly. "My hair and most of my original face was burned away, so Trip had to hire a cheap surgeon to fix me up." Drool left Ash's mouth in complete confusion, a clear indication that the man was having difficultly understanding her.

"Ash, you're...nevermind," she grumbled bitterly, leaving the scene to go jump in the pool even though her clothes were still on. "Try not to take a dump in your pants this time..."

* * *

_Ay, pretty small amount of people for such a huge ship, _thought Luis Sera, taking a look at all of the guests that Serena had invited. _Ah well, she brought all the good people, so this ain't gonna get too boring._

Luis took a few steps over to Brock, gazing at the oceanic scenery passing by with a frown coming across his face.

"Hey Brocko, you doin' okay?" Luis asked, patting the former Pokémon breeder on the back. Instead of receiving an initial vocal reaction, the researcher only heard a faint moan from Brock, one that indicated profound angst.

"I'll...take that as a no," Luis said, rolling his eyes at the drama. "Say, where's your girl? I didn't see her on the way up here."

Brock turned to look Luis in the eyes, while his began watering in response to the ridiculous erroneous melodrama within.

"Lucy has disappeared!" Brock cried out, hugging Luis dramatically. "My love is gone, and I will never see her again!"

"Get a hold of yourself amigo," Luis said in frustration, pushing Brock off of him. "She probably just went to the restroom or something, doesn't mean she's gone. Sheesh!"

"He is usually this way when it comes to women, sir Luis Sera," a male voice with a Finnish accent said from behind, that particular voice being the one of Levi. "Kyllä, I've seen his track record. He's had these moments hundreds of times over the years he traveled with Ash."

Luis turned around to see the peculiar individual staring at the sparse array of clouds, looking as if he was drunk.

"Getting that farmer's tan again, eh?" Luis inquired jokingly, stepping over to the trainer . "Say, you know anything about this ship and where we're going to?" Levi turned his attention off of the clouds, and lazily looked at the researcher as if he was struggling to maintain focus.

"This ship is the _IKS Pesadilla Laberinto_," he answered, rubbing his forehead. "It's the largest cruise-liner in the world, literally more than half the size of the Kanto region. It's got all kinds of stuff, like parks, art galleries, gardens, entertainment zones, gyms, libraries, restaurants, amusement parks, schools and universities, skating rinks, some of the largest Pokémon Centers in the world, a few Star Bucks shops, various bars, movie theaters, tons of pools, casinos, pretty much anything you can imagine."

"I don't know, hombre. I can imagine quite a lot," Luis stated contentiously. "Compared to the crazy stuff I've seen, this ship is anything out of the ordinary."

Luis caught the sight of Levi's Sylveon chasing a Togetic around the deck, and snickered at the thought of what was going on in the mind of the intertwining Pokémon.

"So you say," Levi retorted with a sly tone. "When you find out who owns this ship, you will disagree..."

"Oh really now," Luis snickered casually. "Who could be so weird that this ship would end up becoming stranger than anything that _I've seen?_"

Levi stared off into space, closing his eyes as if repressing a painful sensation pulsing through himself. The somewhat mysterious trainer always reacted or handled common things in highly unorthodox ways, and Luis could tell that the person he was thinking of was incredibly unpleasant.

"Well, look who it is," Paul from behind them. "The loser who ran away like a pussy just for losing merely _one_ league, and he found yet another friend to pity him. Pathetic."

The gothic trainer turned to face Paul with an expression that appeared to be a mixture of both acrimony and mild irritation.

"What is a narcissistic little scumbag like you doing on this ship?" Levi asked with a tone grimmer than anything Luis had ever heard in his life. Paul's eyes narrowed in visible disgust, as if he had been asked a highly ridiculous question.

"Something you couldn't do if your life depended on it," Paul snorted condescendingly. "That happens to be winning another Pokémon League, and the one we're going to is on the Sangria Archipelago-"

Paul stopped midway once he noticed that his apparent adversary was ignoring him, and watching his Sylveon chasing the Togetic around the pool.

"Hey Paul, if you think you're so great at battling," Luis said quietly, pausing halfway. "Why not prove it right here? Show us all what a magnificent prodigy of a Pokémon Trainer that you make yourself out to be."

Paul gave Luis a dark sadistic grin, pulling pokeball out of his pocket with trembling excitement.

"Let's make it a tag battle," Paul told the spaniard in amusement. "You and that worthless loser against me and the guy who gave me the V.I.P pass."

"Wait a sec, who would be naïve enough to give a prick like you something so exclusive?" he asked, taken aback by Paul's statement. Luis turned to the right, and saw the deluded man known as Trip, walking out of the upper hallway wearing a green clown costume.

_Oh hell no_, Luis thought in disbelief, watching Trip advancing towards Paul with open arms, waving them erratically.

"Michael Jackson!" Trip called out to Paul in happiness. "It's such an honor to have a great entertainer like you on my giant bar! I still can't believe you came back from the dead!"

"For the last time, I'm not Michael Jackson, you moron!" Paul yelled in annoyance. "And this isn't a giant bar, it's a cruise liner. You should know that considering that you own it!"

Trip then gave Luis a glance, and took one step towards him with a smile that resembled raw insanity.

"Jacob!" Trip shouted, shaking Luis's hand in a very odd manner. "God, it's been so long since we've seen you! How ya doing man?!"

"Ugh, Trip...we never actually met before," Luis corrected him respectfully. "I only read your biography on the internet, and I don't recall chatting with you on facebook-"

"Ah yeah, great! Good to hear," Trip continued, as if he was misinterpreting Luis's words. "It's good to know you're finally taking my advice and going to become a bartender in Italy!"

Luis's eyes twitched at the statement, he had never desired to do anything of the sort, nor had he ever brought up that topic anywhere.

"It's alright, friend," Levi whispered to Luis. "Trip has tons of mental issues, and failing to correctly recognize people is one of so many."

"Glad to see you're having a good time too, Mada," Trip said to the other guest. "I was just about to offer you guys a chance at a Pokémon battle. Whoever wins gets to try out my newest drink inventions. Whoever loses...has to go to Grace's _BORING_ art shows."

Levi looked off to where his main partner Pokémon was, and made a feral whistling noise that resembled something coming from a savage beast. In less than a second, his Sylveon leaped in front of him, immediately taking a battle posture.

"Time to open a can of whoop-ass on you burros," Luis sneered, reaching into his left pocket to pull out the pokeball containing his own Pokémon. "Bisharp, it's go time!" Luis tossed the spherical capsule in the air, triggering it to open up and shoot out the white light that materialized into the deadly sword blade Pokémon.

"Pathetic," Paul grunted, looking down at the pokeball he held. "Torterra, stand by for battle!" Paul threw his Pokémon's container above him, watching his Pokemon appear in front of him as well.

_I wonder what Trip is gonna use,_ Luis said to himself within his mind, repressing the urge to laugh. _Probably going to be something even more girly than he i-_

Luis stopped his train of thought when he noticed Trip's body was glowing with a multi-colored aura, while his cheeks began rapidly inflating. Trip then vomited all over the space he was standing on, the puke appearing to be lavender and pink in terms of color.

The vomit then pulled itself together, reforming into something that resembled the shape of a Pokémon, and quickly solidifying. The vomit then flashed with a white glare, and once the intense light settled, an Aromatisse was in the place of the substances that Trip puked up.

"What the hell just happened?!" Paul shouted, his eyes widening in visible fear. Luis stared at Trip's apparent Pokémon, feeling disturbed yet fascinated at the same time.

"Looks like Trip might have some kind of strange power," Luis told Paul. "The ability to spawn Pokémon from whatever he spits up I'm guessing."

"Whatever, I don't really give a crap," Paul reacted harshly. "What matters now is our battle, and I say we each use one Pokémon. Now, you want to start or are you going to continue with the pointless science lesson?"

"I say we start the battle and shut you up for good," Levi growled at Paul before Luis could say anything else to him. "I'm not losing this time, and you'll be screaming for mercy after we knock you on your nasty ass."

* * *

_First few hours, and everything is going alright, _Serena thought comfortably, seeing Ash peacefully lounging while reading an issue of Dragon Ball Z upside down. _Please Arceus, please don't let this end up like my party. Please make Ash behave himself through this vacation._

Serena then heard a dull thud occur behind her, and saw Paul's Torterra crashing into the pool with an Aromatisse sliding beside it.

_What in the world? _Serena thought in confusion, and seeing Trip doing an odd dance that resembled a combination of the hopak and generic, yet extremely effeminate fairy poses.

The Torterra quickly regained control of itself, and then vaulted out of the pool, lunging directly at a Sylveon that was leaping in its position as well.

Before a collision could occur, a Bisharp struck the Torterra from underneath with both of its blades, causing it to convulse and crash into the spa beside the pool.

Trip's apparent Aromatisse left the water in the opposite direction, allowing the Bisharp to pursue it, while the Sylveon was left the confront Torterra.

Sylveon's feelers glowed with a sapphire hue as she placed them together, and took careful aim at the grass type opponent. Just as Torterra prepared to launch an attack, Sylveon discharged a gust of transparent sapphire energy, sending the Sinnoh starter flying across the deck.

Torterra crashed into the seats next to the barbecue stand, narrowly missing Serena as she squealed in angst.

"No no, you can't just go ahead and disturb my magic foods!" Trip shouted in protest, dancing over to Serena's position. "Aromatisse, destroy him!"

Trip's Aromatisse charged at Torterra like a savage beast, racing towards it with a pink aura illuminating its entire body.

"Trip, what are you doing?! We're on the same team!" Paul shouted from afar. "Do you want us to lose the battle?!" Trip began dancing in an even stranger pattern as he moved away from Paul, making an assortment of childish noises as he did.

"My magic foods are more important than a Pokémon battle!" Trip retorted angrily, changing his focus to his Pokémon partner. "Aromatisse, use your strongest attack this instant!"

"Torterra, use protect!" Paul shouted, his voice containing a remarkable degree of strain and crude paranoia. Paul's Pokémon was instantly wrapped in a lime veil of light, as Trip's Aromatisse collided with it head-on, creating a blazing explosion in the process that took the stand with it.

* * *

_Argh, THAT IDIOT!_ Paul bellowed in his mind, watching the dust and smoke clear to reveal Trip's Pokémon on the floor, knocked out completely. _What the hell was he thinking?! Now I'm up against two extremely strong Pokémon while mine is barely hanging on, and they both know moves that can finish off Torterra in under five damn minutes!_

"Bisharp, give him a taste of x-scissor while he ain't paying attention!" Luis ordered with an accurately settled tone. Paul watched in disappointment as the claws of Luis's Bisharp glowed with a brown coloration, and saw it deliver several painful slashes in multiple different areas of Torterra.

The Bisharp then kicked the large grass Pokémon aside like an empty soda can, and sent it smashing into Trip.

"Game over, Paul!" Luis announced mockingly, zapping his Bisharp back to its pokeball. "But look on the bright side; at least you learned something today."

"Oh yeah? What might _that_ be?" Paul almost yelled in fury, tightening his fists in pure rage.

"That you're ninety percent all bark and no bite," Luis told him, turning his back to Paul and waving at his ally. "Let's go to the bar, Levi. Why don't we give Paul some time to pull his head out of his culo."

Paul looked away and closed his eyes as the two european men walked into the hallway, sighing in brutal depression.

_You bastards JUST had to ruin my day_, Paul thought bitterly, walking towards one of the lounges. _Why can't I just get the strongest Pokémon in the world already and win every league?!_

"Michael Jackson, are you alright?" Trip asked in concern. Paul opened his eyes in fury, standing up and grabbing Trip by the collar of his costume.

"YOU...You _just_ _HAD _ to ruin the match for us, didn't you?!" Paul yelled at Trip, nearly spitting in his face. "All over a stand that had only chili dogs and melons on it-"

Paul stopped his sentence when he noticed a flare of intense rage in Trip's eyes, and gently let go of the odd man as he took a few steps back.

"What...did...YOU...**JUST**..._**SAY?!**_" Trip bellowed with a volume that could shatter fragile substances.

"Well, come to think of it...there were actually honeydews, watermelons, cantaloupes," Paul stated, noticing Trip was getting even more furious per mention of those particular fruits. "What are you so pissed about? You don't like melons or something?"

"_**RARGH! THAT'S IT! YOU DIE NOW!**_" Trip roared with tremendous amounts of anger in his voice. Trip then grabbed Paul by the arms, and quickly stomped towards the railing at a frightening pace.

Trip thrusted his arms near the ocean, releasing Paul into the sparkling blue sea below the ship, sending the abusive man into the dangerous waters that would drown him for sure.


	2. Chapter 2: Trip's Horrifying Secret!

_This art gallery…I've never seen anything like it,_ Serena thought, looking around the gigantic museum-like complex. The area was at least seven stories high, having numerous artworks lining the walls, with tall statues arranged in the center.

Each floor had a balcony that overlooked the first floor and all of the artwork it contained, and all of the balconies each had their own unique view and sculpture in front of the railing. The doorways and red carpeting seemed to have golden lining, which was arranged in an abstract pattern, a pattern that was almost as abstract as Grace's artwork.

"So this is my first painting…I call it," Grace said, pausing as she pointed to her artwork. "It's called _Missing Vince_…"

Serena glanced at the canvas Grace pointed to, and saw a collection of jagged black scribbles mixed with numerous blue, yellow, and red spots that had finger prints on them.

"Is…this a finger-painting?" Serena asked in curiosity, noticing its sloppy quality even further. Grace gave Serena a bitter glare, her eyes filling with tears as she looked away.

"What? You think you can paint better than I can?" Grace snorted rudely. Serena's left eyebrow twitched in surprise, her eyes retaining the non-aggressive attitude she was showing.

"I was just asking," she stated calmly. "Really, I wasn't trying to suggest anything negative." Grace stomped off to the next painting, her facial expression growing grimmer every moment.

"I call this one _My Hatred For Trip,_" Grace informed Serena, pointing to the artwork. "My marriage was where I got my inspiration for this one."

Serena glanced at the painting, and saw pieces of a torn photograph of Trip scattered all across the canvas, which was partially covered in dried blood.

Before Serena was able to comment on the picture, the Rhyhorn Racer heard somebody sprinting down hallway, and turned to see Nate running in her direction.

"Serena…something…really….really, terrible…happened," he told her quietly, panting dramatically. "Paul…somehow went overboard…then he got attacked and eaten alive by a Gyarados."

"What?!" Serena gasped in horror, though Grace seemed to be ignoring them completely. "Why didn't anyone try to save him?!"

"Nobody knows for sure why Paul left the ship," Nate responded, looking around the gallery in suspicion. "But we think someone else has something to do with it, because Pike Queen Lucy went missing before Paul died. That…and now Drew's gone too. Somebody here is up to something, and I think we're all in danger. We don't know who the culprit is, but we have a pretty good idea…"

_So do I,_ Serena thought in response, looking back at Grace. _Even though Grace isn't that nice, I can tell she doesn't have the nerve to throw somebody off a ship into dangerous waters. I think Trip is behind this…he has plenty of mental problems to begin with, it seems._

"Hey, I found the Easter Bunny's secret hideout!" Ash said from the gallery's entryway, looking at the paintings. "And these must be his magic portals! Which one will lead me to his candy land?!"

Ash quickly ran up to the portrait of Grace, taking it off of its rack and waving it around in odd patterns.

"Nope, not it!" Ash sighed, shaking his head bitterly. The unintelligent trainer then smashed the painting into the wall several times, forming several tears and fractures on its surface.

"How dare you defile my artwork like that, you retarded fiend!" Grace screeched in fury, stomping towards Ash childishly.

"You two stop it, right now!" Serena shouted, stepping between them. "Ash, it's not okay for you to go ahead and wreck other people's belongings, and Grace, it's not right for you to go ahead and yell at my future husband. Everyone should just get along, and handle this in a rational civilized way. There's no sense in being enemies, especially with that crazy person committing his antics right now."

"Wait, wait…hang on, crazy person?" Grace said to Serena in surprise. "What are you talking about?" Serena glanced back at Grace, her left eye narrowing awkwardly at the artist's outburst.

"You didn't hear what I said?" Nate asked Grace in frustration. "Paul went off this ship earlier and Drew's gone, so we're guessing that somebody threw him overboard and I don't think we're safe here."

"We will be," Grace growled fiercely, stomping out of the gallery fiercely. "I'm not letting _that person_ ruin things for me any further!"

Serena watched Grace exit to the hallway in her usual contentious fashion, and instantly questioned whether she should help the hot-headed woman or not.

"It's like she already knows who it is," Nate remarked anxiously. "I got a really bad feeling about this…"

As if in response to Nate's comment, Ash began eating one of Grace's sculptures out of fear, causing Serena to turn around and immediately force it out of his mouth.

"Ash, stop it! That's not food!" Serena squealed, struggling to break it out of Ash's grasp.

"But it tastes like the magic brick I ate at the Pokémon Center! It must be food!" Ash argued, slowly letting go of it.

_Argh, why did this have to happen now?! This is ridiculous, _Serena thought miserably. _I knew Ash wouldn't behave himself forever!_ _But…I won't let this ruin my day, not for long!_

* * *

"You look fabulous today, advice ball!" Trip said gleefully, patting his magic eight ball on its solid gold throne. "I take it that you got along good with Slender Man when he visited today. How's your imaginary friend doing in Hobbes's dreams?"

_The magic wand said the tricycle's train wreck in my seats when I skipped around up the spark plug with its idiosyncrasies in its chest, _Trip thought loosely. _So now we got five magic cards on a playing field that has no gas engine and instead runs on mainstream media that ends up going into the livewire glass cup and now I'm around here wondering where my imaginary friend went? Helloooo?! Imaginary friend?! Where have you been? My imaginary girlfriend took my imaginary wife out on a date, and now I'm here all alone thinking about anything! I wonder where my mom went to the movies last yesterday? Maybe it's inside my advice ball's tuna thinking paper canister phone?_

Trip stopped his train of thought at the sound of his cabin door being thrown open, and turned to see Grace giving him a glare that he hadn't seen since he burned their second house down.

"Oh uh…Grace, I take it you're not in a particularly good mood? Heheh…eh…oh boy," Trip gibbered, looking away nervously. "Look, I didn't know Bob was going to go be here, okay?! And I'm sure the other guests aren't going to be problematic, and if anything, you should be grateful! We got Michael Jackson to come, and there's probably a bunch of other famous people here, so-"

"Shut the hell up!" Grace snapped, grabbing Trip by the collar of his costume. "I know what you did a few hours ago, you threw Paul off the ship, and it's probably for the stupid reasons you do other screwed up things! I'm going to give you one more chance; either stop it with your crazy bullshit, or I'm calling Officer Jenny the very _second_ I get the chance. And if that happens, _you're done for._ Get my drift?"

Trip formed a frighteningly insane smile on his face, and then began dancing in bizarre circles while clapping numerous times.

"Grace, Grace, Grace, you don't have to worry!" Trip told her with a fluctuating tone. "As long as nobody brings up the forbidden word or fruit, we'll be fine! We'll all sing happy dances and be there yesterday! Everything is perfect, so why don't we all just relax and enjoy what this ship has to offer?"

Grace then punched Trip in the face, knocking the insane man into the desk and causing his face to go from an expression of eerie excitement to one of pure fright.

"Mark my words Trip," Grace growled aggressively. "If anybody else on this ship dies and I find out you're the one who's responsible for it, you _will_ pay the price…or better yet, I'll give your pictures of Italy and everything you own that's related to Europe to Ash and knowing how he is…he'll completely wreck them."

"You wouldn't _dare_!" Trip gasped in disbelief, his face boiling with rage, struggling to stand up.

"If you want your stupid stuff to survive and want to stay out of jail," Grace told Trip firmly. "Then don't hurt _anyone _for any reason whatsoever. Understood?"

_This is ridiculous, _Trip thought in shock, feeling massive insecurity pulsing through him. _I actually have to let people who say the names of the forbidden fruits live? No way, Grace can't dictate what I can and can't do. If I want to throw people off this ship for saying those accursed words, then I'm fully entitled to doing that! There has to be a way to keep Grace off my back…oh! I got an idea; I'll just trap her where I put the snake woman!_

"Hey Grace, remember that magic stuff you smoke that makes your trouble go away?" Trip asked, forcing himself to sound less frightened. "I think I got a big stash right over near my closet…"

Grace instantly hopped over to Trip's closet, and began searching for a way to open it. The womanly man then took advantage of the distraction, and slowly crawled over to his cell phone.

_One text message to the computer and she's out of here,_ Trip said within his mind joyfully, taking his phone and sent a series of digits to the ship's central computer. The section of the floor underneath Grace instantly disappeared, sending Trip's wife to the deep depths below.

"Glad that's over with," Trip said to himself in relief. "Now nobody is going to ruin my fun for the day, hehahaheehaha! Man, I am so weird…"

* * *

Grace groaned as she dropped into the dimly lit dungeon, shaking her head as she looked away from the various, remarkably weak ultraviolet lights that positioned on the ceiling and walls of the place.

The only areas that lacked the ultraviolet lights seemed to be the coffins that lined the walls, which had neon-sapphire strips providing the light above them.

"What the hell is this place?" Grace muttered to herself, as she was about to stand up. Just as Grace removed herself from her position, the artist turned around and noticed she had landed on a blood-covered skeleton.

"Oh god…Trip, what in the name of f-" she was about to say, pausing as she noticed another skeleton laying on the floor, this having green hair on the blood-soaked skull and holding a rose in the left hand.

_He already killed Drew, _Grace thought, horrified at the revelation. _Trip has gone completely insane! I need to get out of here and call Officer Jenny NOW!_

Grace heard a banging noise coming from the adjacent side of the hallway, and noticed one of the coffins was jerking about. The ill-tempered woman eased her way in, carefully placing her fingers on the openings and unsealed it while preparing herself for whatever unkind surprise fate had for her.

Once the coffin opened fully, Grace saw Pike Queen Lucy come out of it and fall onto the floor in front of her in bondage, already attempting to scream for help in spite of the tape covering all of her mouth.

_Should I help her or should I leave her here,_ Grace wondered, oblivious to Lucy's numerous muffled screams. _Maybe she knows something that will help me put Trip in prison for good…_

Grace rolled her eyes in frustration, sighing explosively as she ripped the tape off of Lucy's mouth as roughly as she could.

"_**AGH!**_ Was that really necessary?" the frontier leader reacted, cringing at the brief pain. Grace adversely knelt beside Lucy, and placed her hands on the ropes that restrained her arms, slowly freeing trainer from the bondage.

"You're lucky I got you out there in the first place. You didn't even bother to give me one 'thank you' yet," Grace replied bitterly. "You mind telling me what happened?"

Grace tore apart the rest of the ropes that were holding the captive, freeing her from the bondage completely. Lucy moved her arms away freely, and sighed with relief as she stood up to look at Grace.

"I got taken hostage just a few minutes after I got on this ship with my boyfriend," Lucy explained, closing her eyes to calm herself. "I went over to one of the food stands, and your husband happened to be sitting two seats away. When I asked for a watermelon, Trip went berserk and tied me up, then put me down here. Before he locked me in that coffin, I saw him kill…"

Grace saw a saddened grimace form on Lucy's face, and imagined what the frontier leader had witnessed before Trip had imprisoned her.

"I get the picture," Grace told her with a respectful tone. "It's alright, you can save your story for the legal system when they're in the process of ending Trip's rampage for good."

"So…how do we get out of here?" Lucy asked quietly, her eyes still remaining closed. Grace frowned as she stared down the hallway, spotting a small crooked exit door at the far end.

_No…There's no way it can be _that_ easy,_ Grace thought to herself, tightening her fists. _Trip might be simple-minded, but I know he's not so stupid that he would let his prisoners make it out of here without a life-threatening challenge._

As if to confirm Grace's thoughts, a hoard of Weavile and Sneasels suddenly dropped out of the open vents above the coffins and ceilings, all landing in front of any possible exit.

"I knew it…" Grace muttered to herself miserably, as the giant mob of dark type Pokémon surrounded the two women, gradually moving closer with homicidal grins on their faces.

* * *

"I miss Lucy so much," Brock sniffed, lazily dragging himself into the bar. "Has she left me…? Is she truly with another man now and has forgotten all about me…?"

_Ah crap, quit whining!_ Levi grumbled through his thoughts. _If I wanted drama I'd just go watch James of Team Rocket lose at another carnival game. Seriously, a man Brock's age shouldn't be-_

"Hey Brocko, maybe a few shots of tequila will help you feel better?" Luis proposed with a confident grin, then turning to his other companion. "How about you, Levi? Why don't you try out a _real_ drink this time?"

"If I wanted my tongue to taste like crap for days I'd go ahead and have Misty be my own personal cook," Levi replied, before realizing his attitude. "I'm sorry…it's just that, well…seeing Paul again reminded me of something terrible that happened years ago. It was more than just losing a league…it was carrying out a friend's desire. It was a friend who died from advanced Tentacruel poison when I was very young, and he wanted to see me succeed before he passed away.

"So I participated, and I lost a round before I could make it to the semi-finals. Even though nobody I saw laughed at me, a few of the other participants were assholes about my defeat, and that includes Paul. Before I left, he insulted me, my Pokémon, and said if I was in Ash's place, I'd be even more 'pathetic' and he'd kill the Chimchar Ash eventually got to spare it from being humiliated by me not being a good enough trainer.

"Paul himself personally went up to the hospital just to tell my friend that I lost, and said terrible things that I won't repeat. Before I even got the opportunity to say things to cheer my friend up, he was already dead.

"After that…I left the Unova region and swore to never return. I never wanted to challenge another league after that, and I only win badges just to collect them. I gave up trying to be any sort of Pokémon Master, not because I see myself as not being good enough, but because…I just want to leave the past behind me. Being a Pokémon Master wasn't my dream or primary goal in life to begin with."

While Brock appeared to be virtually oblivious to Levi's explanation, Luis was clearly interested in what he was saying.

"Hey now, Paul is full of shit, everyone who's seen stuff about him knows that," the researcher told his acquaintance. "Besides, you can never truly let your friend down if you keep challenging the leagues and win eventually. I can understand your pessimism though. Part of why I quit being a police officer is not just because people didn't appreciate me putting my life on the line to protect theirs, I was tired of seeing my fellow officers dying during the troubled period in Madrid.

"You quit challenging leagues to forget after that bad day, and the other reason for me quitting on being a cop was for the same reason, except I had even more days like that one you talked about, amigo. But aside from leaving law enforcement, I also got more into biological research and did that for living. But one day, I eventually ended up helping a hero in saving the world for evil, a similar type of business I used to be in.

"My point is, you shouldn't give up on your goals because of just one bad experience, because there will be a day where you get to do what you _thought_ you weren't good at once again, and you end up succeeding. Of course, you end up with a few cuts and bruises, but in the end it's well worth it."

A small grin formed on Levi's face, though he still didn't make eye-contact with Luis due to visible sadness.

"Kiitos Luis, uusi ystäväni," he replied quietly, blinking upon realizing what he said. "Forgive me, I don't know all the phrases for that in this nation's primary language."

"Then maybe I outta teach you some of them," a peppery female voice said from behind them. "You got my guarantee they'll get you somewhere, if you get my meaning."

The trio turned around to see the most beautiful woman that any of the three men had ever laid eyes upon in their entire lives, a woman so gorgeous that Levi nearly passed out in his seat just from seeing her in less than a few moments.

"L-Luis...is...this...for...real?" he whispered with a volume so close to being silent, that Luis could hardly hear anything he was saying. "This isn't a hallucination, is it...?"

The woman had a finely curved and generally slim body, with long ruby-red hair and jade eyes that seemed to sparkle at times. The woman appeared to be wearing an odd outfit that seemed to be an allusion to Zoroark, and had crimson facial paint around her eyes for whatever reason.

"What, is this your first time seeing an attractive woman or something?" she said with a sly tone, getting out of her seat and walking towards them.

"No, but it's my first time seeing the hottest one around," Luis said jokingly. "I bet that's the case for these two also." The women pulled up a seat right beside Levi, and leaned slightly closer to Luis with an amused grin.

"So what's the story with you?" she asked with a quieter tone. "Are you lookin-" Luis looked towards the bartender, shaking his head as if already knowing what she was going to ask.

"Sorry señorita, but I'm taken," Luis told her in full honesty, patting Levi on the back one moment later. "But this guy, he's without a girl, and surely he needs one like yo-"

"Oh my, you are as beautiful as a starry night in the most romantic spot in our world!" Brock cried out in pure infatuation, inching closer to the woman. "Please tell me your name, miss! I must know the name of my future true love so we can take each others hands and one day join in marriage to prove our eternal love!"

Levi pulled Brock the ear with a force that could almost rip it off of his head, and moved the ex-gym leader closer to his face passively.

"Why not let somebody else have her?" he told Brock with a faint hiss. "Besides, what about Lucy?" Brock broke free of Levi's grasp, and looked the mysterious trainer with an expression that indicated pure confusion.

"You will not interrupt my quest, Levi! Besides, who's Lucy?" Brock asked with a dishonest tone, his jaw slightly moving in angst. The women pushed Brock aside, looking at Luis and Levi with full interest in her eyes.

"Just call me Demealla," she said in an introductory manner. "I wander around the land looking for a cause, a place to live, and...the rest is a secret. I already had an idea on the first two, and now I'm getting an idea on the third."

Demealla paused to give Levi a wink, causing the trainer to stiffen with a mixture of emotions pulsing through him.

"Anyway, I came here on behalf of an old friend," she continued. "I heard news that Ash was getting married, and I just couldn't miss that. But then after I found out that he and his wife-to-be were traveling to their wedding spot on a ship owned by Trip, I decided it would be a good idea to see to it that Ash get there without Trip putting an end to him."

_She's talking as if Trip is an extremely dangerous person,_ Levi thought in suspicion. _I have a really bad feeling about this..._

"Boys, Trip's been getting crazier as time goes by," Demealla explained further. "The first time I saw him, he thought I was one of his college buddies, he thought Ash was Bob, he thought my son was Professor Gadget, and he mistook one of my friends for that plumber Mario. Since then, he's only been getting worse, and rumors have been going around that Trip has been kidnapping people and harming them for saying the word melon or the names of any fruits related. I came to find a way to get Trip jailed by the time we reach this ship's destination, so nobody dies on here."

_If Trip really is doing what she's suggesting, then that must be the reason why Lucy vanished,_ Levi thought fearfully.

"That must be the reason why Lucy went missing earlier," Luis murmured uneasily, then looking at Brock in mild irritation. "Hey Brock, you been paying attention? Your girl's probably in danger!"

Before the Pokemon doctor had the opportunity to answer, the lighting in the bar dimmed significantly, leaving the guests in pure darkness.

"_Hey my fabulous guests, this is the magnificent Trip speaking!_" the mentally diseased man announced through the audio speakers. "_I'm doing my forbidden fruit sweep of the ship, so if you see any...of them anywhere, please throw them off as soon as the chance arrives! Thanks, and don't forget to look at my picture of my recent travels to Italy!_"

"I got a bad feeling about this..." Luis muttered, placing his hands on the pokeballs he carried. One moment later, a door slowly opened behind them, and an entity holding a firearm slowly eased in, pointing in Brock's direction.

"Oh shit..." Brock muttered, knowing his life was most likely about to end.

* * *

Serena chased Ash down the hallway with Nate following her closely from behind, cringing at the thought of what Ash was about to do next. The idiotic man now had a photograph of Trip and Grace's wedding in his mouth, and was slowly eating it as he raced away like an intoxicated ape.

"Yay! I'm getting new super powers all the time!" Ash cheered in excitement, almost running into a statue in the process. Serena nearly stumbled from exhaustion, feeling the urge to scream as Ash got farther away per second.

"ASH! PLEASE **STOP**!" Serena cried out as loudly as she could. Nate fell face-first on the floor, unable to continue pursuing Ash any further, while Serena was feeling equally exhausted, though she was unwilling to discontinue. Ash briefly halted his escapade, and looked back at his future wife in confusion.

Serena was about to answer Ash's inquiry, and stopped when a pack of Weavile began emerging from the vents on the ceiling, and congregated around the couple in a pattern that would surely guarantee their deaths.


	3. Chapter 3: Demealla Appears! Trip vs Ash

_I had a feeling something like this was going to happen_, Serena thought with a grimace on her face, watching the Weavile swarm gradually nearing their position. _But I shouldn't let this be the end of us. If we can get to a PC in time, we might be able to-  
_

"Serena, you and Ash should get out of here while you still can," Nate whispered with a bleak tone. "I looked up the Pokémon aboard this ship, there's too many of them for us handle. Even if we defeat these Weavile, they'll have backup in no time, and there's going to be even stronger Pokémon coming with them."

Serena heard sounds that resembled a raging stampede of a crazed Houndoom pack underneath them, and stared off into space as she imagined what was about to occur next.

"What? Are we just supposed to go ahead and let them kill us?!" Serena snapped at Nate fiercely, who seemed to be even less hopeful than he was a second ago. "No, I won't accept that. I'm not giving up everything I've worked so hard to achieve all my life just because some obsessed maniac can't control himself! We're getting out of this mess no matter how many Pokémon come at us."

Nate closed his eyes and moved to face the hostile Pokémon, slowly stepping over to them with a small smile crossing his face.

"I know a way to distract Trip's Pokémon. They'll focus on me and when they do, you should run right away," Nate told her quietly, before raising his voice obnoxiously. "Hey, do you want to know where the melons on this ship came from?!"

The Weavile immediately fixated their attention on Nate, their faces indicating primal aggression and anger beyond anything Serena had seen from any living creature in her entire life.

_Trip taught his Pokémon to hate melons too?_ Serena thought in surprise, as Ash slowly approached her and stood by her side. _If Nate uses that to distract them, he's going to die-__  
_

"None of them came from the other guests," Nate lied, causing the Weavile to stop in their tracks temporarily. "I brought some aboard, some were brought by other people before the ship was even completely built. If you kill the other guests though, you'll never be able to stop them from coming or get them off this ship."

The adverse Weavile pack slowly whispered unintelligibly amongst each other, speaking in the typical language while one of them kept focus on Nate.

"Are you going to let them live?" Nate asked them nervously, taking a glance at Serena briefly. The dark type Pokémon that had been staring at Nate looked at its companions, then nodding at the trainer in a manner that appeared highly skeptical.

"Does Nate get to live too?" Ash asked, staring at the ceiling instead of the vicious creature. The Weavile suddenly laughed as if it was being entertained by a comedian, causing Serena to grab Ash's hand and pull him behind her as she ran for the doorway.

Serena heard Nate scream as if the Weavile hoard was tearing him to pieces, and refused to allow herself to imagine what they were doing to him, while Ash witnessed what was occurring.

Serena suddenly spotted an elevator near one of the statues, and immediately slammed on all of the buttons she saw.

"Is Nate alright?" Serena panted as she looked at Ash, who appeared to be utterly horrified beyond any possible description.

"He didn't follow us, the Weavile got him," he answered quietly. "You don't want to know what they did to him, believe me…"

Serena sighed miserably as she entered the elevator with her future husband, pressing the closing button while she mentally prepared herself for the next predicament. While Ash appeared to be relatively emotionless over the scene, Serena was struggling to keep herself from falling to the floor, as she had not been this saddened since her father died. Now another person was dead, and yet again there was nothing she could do about it.

_He will pay for your death_, Serena said within her mind, feeling a mass amount of hatred towards the owner of those Weavile as tears left her eyes. _Trip _will_ pay for it, Nate, he'll be punished for it…I promise._

* * *

Luis watched the silhouette of the apparent gunman enter the room, and quickly sprinted in the person's direction. The researcher then kicked the weapon out of the individual's hand, and pushed him to the floor.

"Nice try…whoever you are," he sneered viciously, watching the lights come back on. "Huh, didn't expect that to happen." Luis looked at the assailant once again, and recognized the man lying on the floor in front of him.

"Shit, I thought it was a hired lackey of Trip's," he apologized, helping him up. "Sorry about that, Seraph. Considering the crazy stuff that's been going on, I couldn't risk allowing anyone to get hurt. I'm not asking you to forgive me, I just want you to know that it was nothing perso-"

"Yeah, I'm not happy about that," Seraph replied, looking in another direction resentfully. "But I guess I can forgive you, and my girlfriend is the one who's _really_ going to be upset. The reason why I came through that door with a stun pistol was because I was being chased by a swarm of fairy Pokémon, and I didn't have any of mine to protect me. Also, how do you know my name?"

"Ah, you got on without fulfilling the requirements that the owner set for the guests," Luis said in response. "Aside from hearing about how you traveled with one of the Unova league participants, we all had to learn about the other people coming for the cruise before getting aboard for some reason. Ironically, Trip is the only one who seemed to know absolutely nothing about any of the guests before they got on."

Luis took a glance at the elevator doors as they opened, watching Ash exiting impassively with his arm around his girlfriend's shoulder. The ex-police officer felt a grim sensation in his gut once he noticed Serena was weeping in a terribly gloomy manner, one that he only witnessed once in his life during the crisis of Madrid, when he informed his commanding officer's family of their parents' deaths.

"Serena, what happened?" Luis asked in dramatic concern, his eyes widening in concern. The blonde trainer simply shook her head, keeping her eyes closed as she was seemingly unable to answer his question.

"Nate died in the art gallery," Ash answered for his girlfriend, his tone lacking all forms of emotion. "Trip's Pokémon cut him to pieces, and then ate everything that was left of him…"

"Let me guess…all Nate said was something related to melon?" Luis growled, his anger appearing to be reaching an appalling level. Ash simply nodded in a "yes" posture, as if his sadness was preventing him from giving a vocal response.

"_**Mierda!**_ That bastard's lost it completely," Luis nearly bellowed, enraged. "Guys, I don't think we can go ahead and wait until we reach one of the islands to get Trip behind bars. We've got to restrain him and take down his Pokémon somehow, otherwise everyone else on this ship might end up dying!"

Serena suddenly opened her eyes and gave Luis a frightening glare, just as she grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him closer to her.

"Don't..say…that," she hissed in an attempt to yell, adding to the amount of tears flowing down her face. "Nobody else on this ship…nobody else will-"

Serena released the spaniard from her grasp, and pushed him away as she walked outside with Ash. Luis sighed explosively, and returned his focus to Seraph as he revisited the ideas he had in mind.

"Guys, here's what I think we should do," Luis began, taking a brief glance at Serena. "We need to capture Trip and make sure he can't keep doing this crap. I think we should split into a few groups since there's a lot of us, and we can easily overwhelm whatever poorly trained Pokémon that Trip will use. I'll stay here and keep an eye on Serena."

As everyone started forming their own independent search parties and left the bar, Luis sat back down in the chair he had earlier, viewing Ash comforting Serena outside in the lounging area.

_If only Leon Kennedy was here,_ Luis thought sadly, shaking his head at the scene. _He probably could have ended this before it even began, and figured out that Trip was crazy enough to be dangerous. One thing I do know for sure…Trip's a real joke compared to Osmond Saddler and if he couldn't win in the end, neither can an idiot psycho like Trip._

* * *

**Hours later…**

"Ugh, no wonder people say Grace hates Trip," Seraph ranted to himself, his Leafeon and Dawn's Piplup walking in an equally unhappy fashion. "I had an idea that he was bad, but I never thought he would sink _this_ low. What is it that turned him evil?"

The ambitious Pokémon trainer and his girlfriend caught a glimpse of the large hallway that led to the set of movie theaters as they briefly discontinued walking; taking a moment to relax in an attempt to relieve themselves of the angst the situation was causing them.

"Maybe we should just jump off the ship and have our water Pokémon take us home…" Dawn suggested skeptically, leaning closer to Seraph. "…I'm scared, sweetie. I don't want to die here, I don't want lose anymore of our friends, I don't want to lose our Pokémon, and…I don't want lose _you._"

Dawn hugged Seraph tightly with a morbid frown on her face, closing her eyes as if she was having a terrifying vision of what Trip was going to do next.

"It's going to be alright, babe," he whispered softly. "I'm not leaving you any time soon…" Seraph leaned closer to Dawn, close enough to the point where their lips met, and shared a long passionate kiss.

"Such a sweet moment," an alluring female voice said from behind them, causing the couple to break the kiss in embarrassment. Seraph spun around on his heel, and saw a crimson haired woman standing near them, who happened to be wearing an outfit that appeared strange to him.

"Who are you supposed to be?" the actor queried, his face reddening at the realization the woman witnessed the kiss.

"Who am I? Just some good for nothing gal wearing a Zoroark costume that's looking for some fun," she answered with a grin. "If you ask me, this ship is pretty fun. Well, outside the drama of course, and you know…_Trip._"

Dawn glanced at the woman with a look that indicated recognition, as if the Pokémon coordinator already knew who she was.

"Demealla…?" Dawn murmured in absolute surprise. The Zoroark-themed woman clapped her hands with a confident smile, and stepped over to the couple heedlessly.

"That's right, contest-queen!" she acknowledged jokingly, patting Dawn on the head. "I really missed you, to be honest. We have a lot of catching up to do, I gotta say. First Ash gets together with a childhood friend he never bothered to tell me about, Misty gets married, Cilan becomes a professional chef that serves the fanciest damn restaurants in the entire universe, and then I hear about how you continued traveling like you did with Ash in Sinnoh. Except you get two new traveling companions and one of them is your boyfriend?"

"Excuse me, but what are you talking about?" Seraph asked her in pure confusion. "How do you know about all this, how do you know them, and what's your story?" Demealla started to wander into the hallway, casually waving for the couple to follow her.

"I'll give you a little history lesson," she explained, sounding surprisingly enthusiastic. "I'll start with me, then I'll go into how I met Ash and the rest. I didn't begin my life as a human, I was born a Zorua. I came from a Zoroark tribe that was at war with a small band of military test subjects that were escaping from a lab; they weren't exactly the friendliest humans around. They were undergoing some mutations for some kind of augmentation experiment, and they quickly began turning into frail, yet very crazy savages.

"They broke out of the lab and stole an airship that they couldn't properly pilot because the mutations were removing their human intelligence and replacing it with something a purely wild, untamed Pokémon would have. But unfortunately for us, they still remembered some of the things they learned. One day they lost control of their ship while flying in a storm and crashed it in the largest forest of the Kalos region, where my tribe happened to be.

"My tribe was out gathering food that day in our usual spot, and my parents were helping me learn new moves and improve my illusion skills, then we found the test subjects trying to make a fire to cook a Skitty and its trainer that had the misfortune of wandering into our forest.

"When those humans realized we were watching them, they tried to run away from us. The Zoroarks tried making illusions of walls to fool them into thinking they were trapped, but the mutations made those humans capable of seeing through them. My tribe's illusion abilities were useless against these lab rats, and they managed to get back to their ship and use the weapons they salvaged. After a nasty fight, the mutant humans wanted revenge on us for preventing them from eating the Skitty. And that was what started the war.

"Even though the humans had all kinds of military-exclusive weapons, and our illusion abilities were useless on them, my tribe still had the upper hand throughout the entire fight because these humans were practically brain-dead. The mutations were making the humans weaker and less capable with every passing day, and the battles were getting even easier. We lost a few our fellow Pokémon, but that was nothing compared to how much they lost on a daily basis.

"Eventually, the mutations eliminated our enemies' immune systems, and they were vulnerable to every sickness you can think of. Even one single germ by itself was enough to kill them in under a week. They didn't have enough physical strength to hold any of their guns, they couldn't run for a few seconds without passing out, and we didn't even need to kill any of them now. All we had to do was just capture them, then throw them to the nearest city so some normal humans could take them into custody.

"During the final days of this war, the last of the mutant band managed to get back to their ship, and they did something that none of us thought they were going to do, or even remembered how to do. Because their ship was still intact and some of it still worked, the last of these humans managed to overload its engines.

"At first we didn't know exactly what was going on, but some of our tribe had seen these things happen to human vehicles before, and when we saw the small explosions coming from the ship, our leader told us to leave and foolishly tried to stop the ship from blowing up. The dumbest thing he ever did…none of us knew anything about how human technology worked or how to use it, or were capable of learning anything of the sort to begin with.

"Even though my tribe did their best to escape, the ship ended up exploding, and took almost everyone with it. Only me and one of my friends survived, everyone else died in the blast."

Demealla closed her eyes, as if to avoid seeing the shocked looks on Dawn and Seraph's faces, and focused on preparing herself to continue her tale.

"In spite of us still appreciating the Kalos region, we both wanted to live somewhere else after that, and…never go to another forest once more. Neither of us wanted to experience anything like that again, and we both began looking for a new home, something completely different. So we went for Coumarine City and hopped on one of the boats heading for the Orange Islands. We planned to live somewhat of a nomadic life for now, and we would start with that region.

"Over there, we often had some _crazy_ experiences, a few battles to help ourselves get stronger, and there were times where we got to relax before going to another island. Then when we got to Mikan Island, we faced off against a former high school student that broke out of a mental institution who came to that island to hide from the special operations unit of the police force, then kidnapped gym leader Cissy and stole her Pokémon. When we found him, he thought we belonged to the police officers, and used Cissy's Pokémon to attack us.

"That battle was a nightmare, but we managed to win and evolved into Zoroarks after it ended. Then we were healed by an Officer Jenny when that kid was arrested, and left to go to the other islands.

"Over time, I ended up developing a romantic relationship with him, and we became mates. We ended up having an egg, and when it hatched…we had a male Zorua as our son, and we decided to name him Peppy. I can't describe just how happy that moment was.

"After that, I decided that I wanted to stop traveling and find us somewhere to live, a place that would be good to raise our son. I couldn't make that decision overnight of course, and he told me that he would try to find out the best place. Then after he did, he went missing for a few days. Peppy was getting sad and missed him, so we went out looking.

"Then one day, I see him with a female Milotic, and it turns out he was cheating on me with her. When I confronted him, we had an argument, and then our relationship ended. He left me to take care of Peppy by myself, and we never saw him again.

"The two of us spent the next few years alone, and I decided to raise him by myself. Peppy often cried before he went to sleep, telling me he missed his father and wanted him back. I just told him that everything was going to be okay, and I didn't really know what else to say to him.

"Even though nobody could really replace his father, I still had hope that I could make Peppy happy again, and even find another love. I decided to go look around for a nice place to live in the Kanto region, a place that had lots of Pokémon Peppy could befriend, and somebody to help fill in the empty spot inside that was made when his father left us.

"During my visit to Saffron City, I saw an interesting Pokémon trainer when I was practicing my ability to disguise myself as a human. Not only was this guy good with Pokémon, but he had a decent personality too. He seemed like the type who would be a good boyfriend, but it didn't seem right to trick him into thinking I was truly a human and not a Pokémon in disguise just so I could date him.

"So, I went ahead and searched for Jirachi so I could make a wish that would turn me into an actual human, and that nearly took a year. It was complicated, painful, and one hell of a miserable journey. I eventually found Jirachi when it was visiting Mount Moon, and it was a bit shy at first. I had to follow around and it sure was a lot of work to convince it that I wasn't going to hurt it or use it for malicious reason. After two hours of exhausting persuasion, Jirachi became nice enough to grant my wish. I was transformed into an ageless female human. But not only did Jirachi make me a human, it made me a sexy, extremely beautiful young-looking woman with a great fashion sense."

_Yeah right,_ Seraph thought sarcastically, snorting at the statement due to his disliking of Demealla's outfit and overall appearance.

"Unfortunately, Jirachi didn't give me the ability to become a Pokémon again, nor did it give me any powers other than being ageless. But it did give me quite a few talents," she continued, her eyes pointing in a direction away from the couple. "I had human intelligence, could learn things and understand concepts most Pokémon species can't, and I was closer to being who I wanted to be. Even to this day, I'm surprised that Jirachi wasn't completely freaked out when it saw how dramatic I was acting when I was thanking it for what it did for me. Then after another five minutes of giving my thanks, I left the mountain to go show Peppy what I was turned into.

"It was pretty awkward when I saw Peppy again, and he didn't quite believe that I was his mother at first until I told him things that nobody else would know except us. That lasted a little while longer than it should have, but we did get it out of the way and I did end up coming back to Saffron City.

"But by the time I got back, my love interest ended up getting a girlfriend before I had the chance to get with him, and I was heartbroken once again. I still remember that night, leaving the city crying with Peppy in my arms. I was glad he was asleep, and didn't have to see me that way..."

For a brief moment, Seraph's minor antipathy towards the woman was replaced with slight sympathy, also causing his expression to have some small amount of guilt for his attitude directed at her earlier.

Although Dawn was remaining generally quiet, she seemed to be whispering words that indicated a sense of empathy towards the former Zoroark; the Pokémon Coordinator was obviously feeling moderately saddened when reminded of the woman's misfortune.

"So after I left Saffron," Demealla carried on, her tone sounding gradually more positive. "I decided I was going to embrace the life I was going to be living as a human, and take advantage of the possibilities that I couldn't have had as a Pokémon. I started working at a restaurant in Pewter City to get some money to go to a nearby college so I could add that to my résumé in the case that I wanted something a little more advanced.

"I ended up being a movie set designer, and then quit that to go help out Pokémon academies with whatever blank spots they had. Although, I couldn't do all the jobs and everything they wanted me to do, thus the reason why I got laid off or rejected a quarter of the time. Thankfully, my career in that business stabilized eventually. Then one day I was transferred to a small school in Pallet Town, and funnily enough, that was the day when Ash was having his fifteenth birthday party.

"Peppy and I found him wandering into the school looking for his Pikachu, and Delia was also trying to get him to come back into their home. When I brought Ash back to Delia, I found that all of the people he ever traveled with, except Serena, happened to be there, and we all introduced ourselves to each other. Heh, that was the best day I ever had in the Kanto region.

"I got to know the Ketchum family a little better and I found out from Delia that Ash stopped traveling to other regions and challenging leagues after he turned twelve. Even though it was just two years, he managed to travel all around the world with Pikachu and many of his friends. Sadly, he didn't win any of the leagues, but that wasn't why he quit.

"Because Ash didn't receive vaccinations for the native diseases in the regions he visited, he caught something in Unova that eroded parts of his brain over time. Ash started getting dumber, and he eventually lost the mental ability to continue his goal of becoming a Pokémon Master. He didn't even know what it was anymore, so he came back to Pallet Town to have Delia take care of him until he got a job.

"I occasionally helped her out, and I took Ash on adventures with some of his old friends from time to time. Eventually, Ash managed to get a job of sorts in Kalos, and moved over there. After he left, I sort of lost touch with Ash and didn't meet Serena until I got here. As for where Peppy is right now, he's with Delia and her Mr. Mime."

Seraph caught a glimpse of various posters lining the hallway's walls regarding Italy, such as foods, landmarks, people, Pokémon, buildings, along with other things pertaining to the country's culture, and remembered the other question he had for his new acquaintance.

"Demealla, do you know anything about Trip, the owner of this ship?" he asked politely. Seraph felt a rock form in his gut when the look on Demealla's facial expression changed from one of enthusiastic glee to disturbed disdainful resentment.

"Oh yeah, of course I know about the most girly loser in the world," she replied with a spiteful tone. "I met Trip and Grace the night of the Viridian City High School prom, when the school asked me to go there to help prepare the food. Trip was there under the assumption that this was a Christmas Eve party and it was the night he was going to propose to his wife, even though he already married her years ago.

"Trip also thought I was his college friend Adam and kept thanking me for introducing him to Grace, and even though I kept saying that I never met either of them before, he thought I was saying something completely different each time. Then he rambled on about things relating to Italy, and it got more insane from there on out.

"Trip also thought Ash was his friend Bob and thought that Ash was getting married to Trip's imaginary friend Paula. He also thought Peppy was Professor Gadget, assumed another of my friends was the plumber Mario, and misidentified everyone else too. Then when somebody said the word 'melon' that night, Trip jumped out the window and ran to his hotel screaming. I knew right there how crazy Trip was, and I had a feeling he would have to be locked up eventually."

Demealla stopped at the sound a disgusting moaning noise behind them, and the three turned around to see what appeared to be a horrifically mutilated zombie-like Celebi limping towards the theater hallway.

This particular Celebi's left eye was covered completely by dried yellow gore mixed with hardened crimson blood, which was also smeared across its face. The right eye was devoid of a pupil and an iris, the cracked sclera being its only visible visual trait.

The time traveling Pokémon also had other disturbing features; its missing antennae and missing wings, the deformed left arm that appeared to be slowly melting off of its body in contrast to its horrifyingly mangled right arm, and a virtually translucent green fluid appeared to be flowing out of its mouth.

"What's wrong with that Celebi?!" Dawn squealed, hiding behind Seraph, who appeared to be equally horrified at the sight.

"I don't-" he tried to say, stopping when he heard additional grotesque moaning in other directions. Seraph glanced at the sources of the noise, and saw a hoard of fairy type Pokémon that appeared to have similar deformations that the "Zombie Celebi" had and were displaying identical behavior, giving Seraph an impending feeling of dread.

"What happened to these Pokémon? Did they jump in a giant garbage disposal or something?" Demealla said quietly in disgust, before seeing the Zombie Celebi leaping towards them.

* * *

"Fabulous! Now nobody will say the names of the forbidden fruits, right advice ball?" Trip asked his magic eight ball, holding it in his left hand as he walked out onto the deck to watch the sunset. "I hope the breeder doesn't mind that his girlfriend is going to die in the closet, but then again it doesn't matter as long as my magic vacation goes along as planned!"

The Italy-loving bartender stood near his outdoor painting of a spaghetti plate, and saw Ash and Serena relaxing in the mosaic spa with Pikachu lounging next to them. Trip noticed Ash was literally drooling as he gazed mindlessly at Serena, though he could tell it wasn't due to his usual unintelligent confusion, it was due to the fact that Serena was wearing rather revealing swimwear that was entirely black in terms of color, which he obviously found incredibly attractive.

_They look like they're having a good time, _Trip thought peacefully, beginning to dance like a fairy. _Marvelous, this cruise is getting to be such a success!_

"Ash…I should have brought this up earlier, but what are we going to tell Rosa?" Serena sighed remorsefully, keeping her eyes closed. "I never actually was in this situation before, where I had to tell somebody their partner died."

_Crap,_ Trip cursed within his mind, his eyes widening in fear at the revelation. _That person Fernando is hinting at must have said the name of a forbidden fruit, and my Pokémon probably killed him! I can't afford to have all my guests hating me…I better take these two out while I still have the chance!_ _Agh, I gotta stay calm though, I have to pretend like nothing happened._

"Um, hey guys," Trip greeted, approaching Ash and Serena nervously. "Is everything alright here?"

Serena gasped in fear, nearly jumping out of the spa in process, while Ash simply glared at Trip as if he knew exactly what happened.

"I'll take that as a no..." Trip muttered, feeling the urge to throw them both off the ship, just as Pikachu snapped to attention and aggressively stepped towards the womanly individual.

"Pi, pika chai!" Pikachu yelled at Trip fiercely, pointing in the direction of where the apparent incident occurred.

"H-how did you know about that?!" Trip asked Pikachu in shock, appalled at the electric mouse Pikachu's accusations.

"You can understand what Pikachu is saying to you?" Ash inquired dully, his glare changing into something that resembled confusion.

"Of course I can, Bob," Trip replied, pointing at Pikachu. "The fairy godmother is speaking the same language all of us are on this ship."

"You've really lost it, Trip," Luis sneered, emerging from the shadows. "Lucky for us, that's not going to hurt anyone else from here on out. I saw on a video from a security camera that your wife just freed somebody who can press charges against you, and the court can lock you away even longer thanks to the fact that you're no good at getting rid of evidence.

"And thanks to you sucking at Pokémon training, Nate was able to start a rumor that made your Pokémon leave us all alone, and that rumor spread everywhere on this ship. Not only did they let Ash and Serena go, but I also saw on the security videos that they let Brock's girlfriend and your wife get out of the prison section. You lost control of everything, amigo."

Trip stared at Luis mournfully, feeling his spirits plummeting into an abyss deeper than a black hole, along with a small amount of anger.

"You idiots, now how will I tame the zombie threat?" he tried to yell, and failed due to the overwhelming agony. "Ah, screw it. It doesn't matter if they beat me to the ones who break my rules, I'm going to make this cruise the way I want it to be. And if that means I have to destroy you and let the zombies get rid of the rest, then fine!"

"That's not going to happen, you dirty little melon!" Luis shouted, reaching for the revolver on his belt. Trip summoned the energy he had left, and formed a green sphere of light around his magic eight ball.

"You know what? Jacob," Trip began to say, his tone filled with disgust. "That's it, _you need to leave!_"

* * *

Serena stared in disbelief as Trip threw his magic eight ball at Luis, creating a partially transparent flash of lime-colored light while sending Luis flying into the swimming pool near the spa.

Pikachu cringed at the sight of Luis hitting the water, narrowly missing the diving boards as he did, though he still remained conscious.

"That's enough, Trip!" Serena shouted, exiting the spa and carefully walking towards her backpack. "None of us understand the reason why you hate people saying melon so much, but it doesn't justify you doing these terrible things! Your killing spree ends today."

Trip then slowly advanced towards Serena, his face twisting into something that resembled a tremendously homicidal look.

"You know what? Fernando," Trip said, his tone sounding more menacing than ever before. "I think you should _go_, and by go, I mean DIE!"

"No, you aren't taking Serena from us!" Ash told Trip brutally, taking a glance at Pikachu. "Pikachu, use thunder wave on Trip!"

Pikachu hopped in Trip's direction as his cheeks pulsed with yellow static that transformed into a jagged pulse of electricity, one that flew into Trip's direction and struck him directly in the face.

"What…have…you…done?" Trip whimpered, spinning horizontally towards the pool. Serena forced her hand into her backpack, keeping her eyes on Trip as Luis swam away towards the shallow end of the pool.

"Ash, once Luis is out, get Trip in the water," Serena said to her boyfriend, taking an empty bronze Master Ball out of her bag. "I'm going to try to catch him using my Master Ball. It's modified to work on anything, even things that aren't Pokémon."

Just as Luis exited the pool, Ash nodded at her with a small grin, and returned his focus to their deranged adversary. Trip's expression was now filled with nothing more than blatant agony, no matter how hard he attempted to free himself from the spin, the paralysis Pikachu inflicted on him was simply too strong. However, before anyone could perform another act, Trip stumbled into the pool, hitting the water face first.

"Pikachu, use thunder on the water! Give it everything you got!" Ash instructed with nothing but confidence in his tone.

"Ash, no! We need Trip alive!" Serena protested in desperation, though she was far too late.

Pikachu let out an ear-piercing screech as he summoned the attack with all the available power he had, sending a massive bolt of lightning from the clouds overhead into the pool water.

Trip let out a hideous scream that caused everyone else to cringe from the pain in their ears along with the flash of light that was brighter than anything even a star could muster, just as Pikachu's attack did what it could to obliterate Trip's body.

Once the flare cleared, Serena looked into the pool, and saw nothing except for liquefied pieces of Trip's clothing floating aside from portions of his hair that now resembled a form of plastic, though none of his body's skin or internal components could be seen.

"Great," Serena grunted, walking over to the chairs while Luis and Ash stared at what was left of Trip. "Now Ash is the one who goes to prison unless we-"

"I don't think so, Serena," Luis interrupted her, though his tone didn't sound any less negative. "I've seen people get electrocuted to death in water before, and they don't just disappear and leave behind parts of their clothes and some hair floating around. I think Trip managed to escape at the last minute…"

"So he's still alive?" she murmured somberly, still looking away from Luis, who was walking around the pool inspecting what Trip left.

"Yeah, I think Trip is still around," the researcher answered unhappily. "On the bright side, he'll be a lot easier to catch, considering what Pikachu did to him. But this isn't over yet, and I lost contact with the others. Even if we can enjoy some time off, I don't think we should get too comfortable, because after looking at some stuff Trip had in his computers, I learned that he kept some nasty things on this ship. We still have things that want put an end to us all."

As if to confirm Luis's statement, an eerie moaning came from behind, along with noises that resembled something breaking apart. In less than a second later, Serena saw a deformed creature fling into Ash's face.


	4. Chapter 4: Farewell To An Old Friend

_Trip…never did I think you would be capable of doing these things, _Levi said within his mind, still appalled at what Trip had done. _I knew there was something wrong with you to begin with, but to think that you would actually kill people…and over such _trivial_ reasons? I am not surprised that Grace has such a strong hatred for you, and I'll also help Serena punish you for your sins…_

Levi watched Rosa lazily disappeared down another hallway, and shook his head in pity as he placed his Sylveon in her pokeball.

"Guys…I don't think it was a good idea to let Rosa come with us," Misty commented, becoming increasingly nervous at the darkening corridors. "Luis told us that Trip probably has some nasty traps waiting for us, and Rosa isn't in any shape for a Pokémon battle. Even though we're all shook up from what happened to Nate, she's the most upset out of all of us. I don't think she can handle anymore of this."

The male companions and their Pokémon nodded in agreement, all appearing as if struggling to refrain from breaking down.

"Hang on," Trevor said, stopping and pulling out his new PokeNav. "I'm not exactly sure of this, but what if the others caught Trip by now? What do you think, should we call them?"

For a moment, Misty stood still while the other trainer took his own PokeNav out of his pocket, and stared at it suspiciously. Levi watched the signal bars on his device's screen quickly fade away until it was devoid of the meter completely, and slowly placed his PokeNav back in his pocket with his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"The service is gone all of the sudden," Levi acknowledged quietly, turning to make eye contact with Trevor. "Trip might still be out there, and he probably did something to disable all forms of communication services. I think we should…"

Levi stopped mid-sentence at the sight a tall figure glowing with blue light, looming over Trevor, who also turned to see the entity and quickly hid behind Misty in outright fear.

The figure had the looks of an incredibly sleek humanoid machine of sorts, though its resemblance was loose as it appeared more machine than anything.

Its limbs were smooth, covered in silver armor, and were longer than that of an actual human. It appeared to have two sets of arms, the smaller being closer to the center of the abdomen and having dark grey armor instead of the overall silver coloration.

The left larger arm boasted a jagged glass long-sword that glowed with the same shade of blue that illuminated the lining of the machine's armor. At the edge of the right larger arm was something that had the looks of a futuristic ranged rifle of sorts, a lengthily weapon that was just as elegant as the rest of the mechanical construct's body.

Its head was covered by a featureless helmet with three spaces, which showed its "teeth" and two glowing eyes that had the same sinister cobalt glow that the rest of its body carried.

On its back was a large rounded carapace, one that possessed similarities to a wide yet slender metal backpack with strips of blue light all over its surfaces, further adding to the general elegance that the machine had to it.

Despite the visually appealing traits, the machine somehow had a malevolent feel to it at the same time, as if it was under the directive of a homicidal spirit with nothing on its mind other than the progression of a spiteful agenda.

"Is this robot one of Trip's minions?" Misty whispered in fear, watching Trevor walk up to it. "Trevor, what the hell are you doing…?!"

"We mean you no harm," Trevor told it, his voice trembling dramatically. "Just let us go, and we won't do anything to inconvenience your master…"

The mechanical creature suddenly raised its rifle, moving the barrel of the weapon one inch from Trevor's face. The machine then discharged the firearm, sending an orange beam that burned through Trevor's skull and reduced his head to nothing but mostly molten particles mixed with burning ashes.

Levi's eyes widened in horror as Trevor's gradually incinerating corpse fell at the feet of the robotic killer, and heard a condescending snort from the machine as it glared at its next targets.

"You shouldn't have done that," Levi growled at their foe, reaching for one the pokeballs he carried. "Siirry, Chandelure!" With those words spoken, the trainer threw the Pokémon's container in the air, causing it to open and send it a white flash, which materialized into the luring Pokemon known as Chandelure.

"Whether this thing belongs to Trip or not, we'll beat it either way. Go, Gyarados!" Misty reassured her comrade, throwing a pokeball of her own into the air. The spherical capsule sent out the infamous atrocious Pokémon in the adjacent position of the Chandelure, successfully cornering the machine.

_Wait a minute,_ Levi thought in surprise, taking a closer look at their new enemy. _In one of Trip's blogs, he mentioned something like this in his nightmare. It fits the description perfectly..._

"Misty...Although I don't have proof of it," he began quietly, moving closer to his friend. "I think Trip might have created this with his power basing it on one of the nightmares he had by mistake. He called these things 'Promethean Knights', and they are supposed to be a type of highly advanced artificial intelligence-driven warriors that were made to protect the galaxy from evil. But somebody reprogrammed them for the sake of conquest and malice. Other than that, he gave no other information. But one thing is certain; we have to destroy this one, whether it works for Trip or not."

Misty turned to look at the Promethean Knight, who was looking back and forth at Gyarados and Chandelure, as if determining which Pokémon to kill first.

"Here's the plan; I'm going to see if we can get this thing to short-circuit. We need to have our Pokémon open its body so Gyarados can dump some water on its circuits, assuming it has any. First we need to melt off its armor," Misty said confidently, pointing at the Promethean. "Gyarados, flamethrower!"

Gyarados quickly reared up and sent the deadly flames in the metallic beast's direction, causing it to rapidly spin away, and throw a grenade into the Pokemon's mouth.

Misty barely shrieked as her Gyarados swallowed the grenade, and gasped as the explosive detonated inside of its body, her eyes watering at the horrific sight.

"Gyarados?!" Misty called out in irrational concern, watching her Pokemon's eyes roll back in its head as it continually struggled to keep its balance.

"Chandelure, will-o-wisp!" Levi commanded, forcing himself to remain calm in spite of what was happening to Misty's Gyarados. The Promethean Knight dashed out of the way just as the attack struck its body, and already began gnawing away at its armor, though it still was able to take aim at its attacker.

The Knight outstretched its left arm, triggering its sword to glow even brighter and gain small pulses of lightning surging along its blade. The artificial warrior then performed a horizontal spin, taking a slash at Levi's Chandelure.

In spite of its target having the ghost-type properties, the Promethean's sword was still able to make contact with Chandelure, and sent the chandelier-like Pokémon flying away, knocking it out in the process.

Levi sprinted over to his Pokémon as quickly as he could, returning it to its ball immediately before seeing the deteriorating Promethean resume its fight against the Gyarados.

The Promethean Knight aimed its rifle at Gyarados once again, this time at the spot between its eyes. Without pause, the machine fired the weapon numerous times, blasting the flesh off of the atrocious Pokemon's front side.

Just as the robotic creature's ammunition was exhausted, Misty's Gyarados fell lifelessly to the floor with smoke coming from its body.

"G-Gyarados?!" Misty stuttered, repressing the urge to cry. "No...please...please...no..."

Levi silently gazed at the scene having no idea what to say next, instead walking up to Misty to offer her comfort. The former gym leader quickly turned to face him, and held him by his forearms as she was about to say something.

"Misty, I think we can still succeed," he interrupted her, exhaling at their loss. "Even if it burns away, even if there's a possibility we can still win-"

"We can't win," Misty argued, her tone unable to conceal her sadness. "One of us _can_ weaken it, and then the others, or maybe Trip can destroy it. One of us has to stay and fight though, even if it means the end of us. I know that sounds crazy, but too many of our friends have died. What Nate would want is for us to make sure everyone makes it out of this mess alive no matter what the cost. Even if it would pain him too, at least someone gets to go down making a difference."

Levi looked in his bag of pokeballs, and cringed at the thought of what would most likely happen to his Pokémon if they fought too.

"I'll stay here," Misty said with a small smile on her face, looking at an emergency elevator. "You go help the rest of our team, I'll be doing the fighting."

"Misty...that's suicide," Levi protested, appalled at her statement. "You said it yourself, too many of our friends have died. That doesn't mean you don't count." Misty forced the doors of the elevator open, and shoved Levi inside, her smile fading away a slow pace.

"This is NOT right," he continued apprehensively. "That thing can defeat all your Pokémon, does this really have to happen?!"

"Levi, it's better than EVERYONE dying on this ship!" Misty shouted with a volume louder than her companion previously used. "I know how you'll feel, but sometimes sacrifices like this are needed, there's no other way! You're not strong enough to beat this thing, _I have to do this._"

"You won't get a damn thing done by doing this!" Levi argued fiercely, his emotions overriding his rationality. "Get in the elevator with me, that bastard isn't worth it!"

Misty slammed the elevator doors shut as tightly as she could, causing Levi to race to the front, and attempt to open them will all of his physical strength.

However, no matter how hard Levi tried to open them, they wouldn't move in the slightest. They were sealed shut to the point where his Pokémon couldn't open them. Levi watched Misty tap a series of commands into the panel outside of the elevator, and realized she was programming it to go down and open when it reached the desired destination.

"Misty, stop!" Levi begged, falling to his knees. Moving to one of the elevator's windows, he noticed the Promethean Knight regained control of itself, and leaped over to Misty's place.

"Goodbye..." Misty said to him, waving to Levi as the elevator began to descend. Though Misty was now hardly visible, he could still see the Promethean Knight brandishing its sword, and performing a horizontal slash. Though the elevator was now too far away from him to see what occurred, he knew the Promethean Knight had just sliced Misty's head off.

Levi stared at the last place where he saw his friend unable to say anything else at all, stunned beyond all possible description.

Now, Misty had just lost her life, and yet another of the group's friends was dead. It didn't matter to him whether Trip was at fault or not, as this moment, he now wanted to punish the Italy-obsessed bartender more than ever, as well as eradicate all Prometheans in existence.

Levi rested his back against the rear wall, closing his eyes due to feeling nothing except extreme despair. For the first time in years, Levi had no idea of any sort on what to do next.

* * *

Luis swiped his revolver out of its holster along with the pokeball that contained his second strongest Pokémon, looking for where to throw it while taking aim at the zombie Cleffa that leaped on Ash and held onto his neck.

"Aidos, you creepy little prick!" Luis sneered, aiming at the undead creature and pulling the trigger on his weapon. The projectile instantly struck the grotesque imp's spine, forcing it off Ash due to the projectile killing it by the penetration of the fiend's spine.

The zombie slid down Ash's back, the liquids on its body hardening once it touched the floor. Serena gave Luis a tight hug at the sight of saving Ash's life, while the Pallet Town trainer glanced at the lifeless body of the undead Cleffa.

"I don't get it, what happened?" Ash asked in confusion, drooling at the sight.

"You're welcome," the former police officer replied sarcastically, preparing to send out his Pokémon. "Go, Steelix!" Luis tossed his Steelix's pokeball in the air, stiffening when it materialized in front of him.

_There might not be that much room here,_ he thought nervously. _But we got enough space for now, and one thing I know about zombies for sure; they can't infect steel-type Pokémon._

"Pikachu, are you ready to fight again?" Ash inquired, looking at all the possible entryways. Pikachu gave Ash a short nod, and took an aggressive battle stance in front of his master. "Good, you'll need to because they're already coming!"

A hoard of zombie fairy-type Pokémon slowly advanced up the stairs and through the open doorways, all moaning in disgusting manners that would make even the strongest stomachs to churn in the most excruciating ways imaginable.

"Steelix, smash the ones by the door!" Luis ordered, pointing at the zombie Floettes. The steel-type Pokémon wasted no time bashing the front lines of the zombie platoon with its tail, quickly disintegrating the fragile monsters and sending their remains flying into the ocean.

"Pikachu, use thunderbolt on the water types," Ash instructed, shivering at the haunting abominations limping towards them. "I don't get it, what are they doing?"

The electric mouse Pokémon shivered at the thought, and summoned the power he needed to electrocute the secondary squads coming at him. The bolts of lightning simultaneously hit the majority of their undead adversaries, causing them to convulse and literally fall apart.

"These things are really weak and fragile..." Serena thought out loud, as if she formulating a plan. "Guys, I know a way we can beat these things. If we can get everyone in our group over here, we'll be able to overwhelm them and make them want to retreat. But now, you have to trick them into thinking they have a chance. There's not enough of them here to defeat Steelix or Pikachu." Serena then left the area, and wandered in the direction of where Trip's room was.

_Who made her in charge? _Luis wondered, before another reanimated corpse jumped towards them.

* * *

_I've been wandering around this damn ship for hours, _Grace complained within her mind. _And haven't find any trace of Trip anywhere, or anything that can bring me any type of happiness at all. Was I put into the universe just to live a life filled with nothing other than misery?_

Grace continued walking down the cinema hallways, recalling her memories of the past, and then realized something much to her surprise. There was truly a time in Grace's life when she _was_ happy, during the period where she was in college.

_I already knew Trip was the reason why I was never happy all the years,_ Grace said within her thoughts, curious on what the future would possibly hold. _But...I didn't think that he was the only reason. If I never married him, all these years would have been happy ones. And if I end our marriage and manage to get Trip locked up...maybe my life can be happy once again._

Grace then noticed blood splattered on one of the Xerneas statues and the wall behind it, and saw Rosa's shredded clothes scattered across the floor in front.

"Oh my god!" Grace cried out in terror, before screaming at the sight of Rosa's deformed body limping in her direction. Rosa's skin now was pale to the point where its coloration matched generic paper, and was covered with multiple gruesome bite wounds all over the place, and her left arm was missing.

Most of her clothing and hair had been torn away, and an enormous gash was visible on her forehead. Though her eyes remained, neither of them were focused on anything, nor were looking in the same direction. It was as if Rosa was dead, yet her lifeless body was still capable of movement and was operating under primal instincts based on a primal directive.

"Rosa, are you alright?!" Grace called out, though she was too afraid to get anywhere near her. Instead of receiving a vocal response, what used to be the Pokémon trainer known as Rosa chose to make an attempt at physically harming Grace by using her remaining arm to punch her in the face.

Grace successfully evaded it, and understood what had happened to Rosa at that moment. Trip had experimented with his powers in the form of attempting to restore the lives of deceased creatures, and failed miserably. Instead, Trip had turned them into savage undead lifeforms with endless hunger for brains.

"I'll be going now," Grace told Rosa's homicidal corpse, running in the opposite direction. "Go eat the brain of somebody who isn't one of the best artists in the world!"

A blue bubble of light suddenly spawned in Grace's direction, transforming into the figure of a machine that Grace only believed to have existed in Trip's nightmares, that of which happened to be a Promethean Knight.

The artistic woman spun around on her heel and ran in the opposite direction despite the zombie form of Rosa being present, as the Promethean was a superior threat.

However, two additional blue bubbles made it to the scene, and formed directly behind the undead girl, drawing their weapons the minute they noticed her. Rosa lunged at the Knight near the right side corner, and sought to latch onto the machine and pull its head off.

The Promethean Knight responded by thrusting its hardlight sword into Rosa's torso, impaling her directly through the chest as the blade stuck out of her back. The cruel machine threw the zombie off of its sword, and made a comical high-pitched chirp that indicated blatant disgust. Grace looked around the room for the nearest exit, and spotted the elevator entrance on the opposite end of where the ancient machine threw Rosa's inert body.

"I bet you robots want to know where Trip is," Grace told them deceitfully. "Well...if you kill me, you'll never know."

The trio of Prometheans exchanged looks with each other, as if communicating in an attempt to reduce their confusion. However, before any of them could ask Grace for clarification, the hotheaded woman had already sprinted for the elevator and had made her way inside.

* * *

The door to the cabin of Trip swung open easier than Serena had expected, leaving the compassionate woman momentarily paranoid as she walked towards the PC monitors.

_Aside from whatever controls the ship's broadcast speaker,_ _there has to be something else here that can help us,_ Serena said to herself within her mind, sitting down as she accessed the PC near Trip's clown-themed bed, browsing his private files. _At this point, I'd even be fine with just another typical picture of Italy, as long as it has _some_ kind of clue that can lead us to Tri-_

Serena's train of thought paused when she noticed something odd on the PC's touch-screen monitor, the odd thing being a strange icon sitting above the shortcut to the documents of Trip's apparent nightmares.

_I don't really have time to be messing around, _Serena thought anxiously. _Even if we have time, I need to look for the program that Trip uses to broadcast across the ship...then again, maybe this computer will let me do both, whether it's a piece of garbage Trip made or actually something good._

Serena proceeded to input a command that allowed the machine to search for the program Trip used to give annoucements to the entire ship, and then took the time to tap the icon and open what Trip had stored within. Her eyes widened in utter fright at the parade of horrors that sat in the seemingly suspicious folder, the pictures of various frightening robotic organisms, zombies far more disgusting than the ones her group was facing off against right now, and text documents given senseless names that did not make sense.

Serena carefully tapped the corner text document, and was treated to a variety of odd sentences in french, a clear testament to Trip wanting to keep up his privacy without having to install passwords on all of his "secret" documents. Unfortunately for Trip, Serena had became fluent in french over the years, both written and vocal, allowing the rhyhorn racer to make further progress on uncovering the mysteries the maniac was keeping.

"My, my, Trip...you are the craziest bastard I've ever known," Serena snarled, repulsed at what he had written until she came across something that blew her mind to atoms. "Okay, I'm never taking another ocean cruise again unless I'm in charge of it and it's in a two person boat..."

* * *

Grace sighed with relief as the elevator doors closed in front of her, and rested her back against them, feeling a sense of comfort until she saw one of the guests sitting in the corner looking like he just suffered an emotional breakdown.

"Levi...what happened?" Grace asked without genuine concern of any sort. "You look as sad as Trip did when he lost the bartender contest of 2007, and what happened to Trevor and Misty?"

"They were killed by an ancient guardian that was programmed for evil purposes," he answered, sounding darker than Trip did when he yelled at Adam for saying the word melon at their wedding ceremony. "The body count keeps rising because of that idiot husband you have here."

"And people are just completely clueless on why I despise Trip so much," Grace commented unkindly. "Look, I know how you feel entirely. Misty and Trevor aren't the only ones who died in the last hour, three of them ambushed me earlier and one of them stabbed a girl I found in the hallway. Although a zombie already got her and she turned into one too, so she was dead already. I was lucky enough to get away before any of them could kill me. I think they're mostly after Trip, and just attack us because they were a threat to everyone in Trip's nightmare-"

"Grace, we don't have proof that Trip manifested the Prometheans with his powers," Levi interrupted with a depressed tone. "Even if Trip deserves hatred, we shouldn't go ahead choosing to blame somebody for all of our problems. Much of the time, we have the option to leave situations we don't like, and we don't always realize this. Just because Trip is scumbag doesn't mean he's at fault for everything."

"Yeah, I...I get what you mean," Grace told him hesitantly. "To tell the truth, I blamed people for my misery and failed to take responsibility for myself many times. In the case of my marriage with Trip, I always to could have left Trip, yet I didn't. It was acting stupid and forgot I had that chance all along, and as much of a prick as he is, Trip isn't the kind of husband who would force his spouse to stay with him forever. I could have gotten away and made my life the way I wanted it this whole time..."

Grace noticed a sapphire-tinted spark reflect off of the window glass, and turned to see a fragmented Promethean Knight teleporting directly behind her.

Without warning, Levi delivered a brutal kick to the machine's backside, causing a cracking noise in the process. Grace noticed that the Knight was slowly coming apart due to the molten metal fragments falling off of its body, and realized that both she and her guest could destroy the robotic entity right at that very point in time.

"This looks important!" Levi snarled, grabbing onto a cable in the Promethean's backside, ripping it out with all of his strength. A storm of sparks shot out from the places on the construct's body where the cable had hung a second ago, just as the blue lights on its surfaces began flickering on and off.

Grace saw their foe's sword barely hanging onto its arm, and took advantage of its weakened state to break off the blade, and force it into the mechanical warrior's neck.

The Promethean Knight cried out in pain as the exterior of its body exploded with sparks, along with a moderately small explosion occurring within its chest. The demonic machine then burned away as if it had been thrown into a volcano, and transformed into nothing more than a pile of flaming dust, the rifle was the only part of it that remained.

"Grace, I owe you my thanks," Levi told her, sounding far more positive than he was beforehand. "So would those who unfairly lost their lives to that asswipe."

"What do you mean?" Grace muttered in confusion, not knowing the implications of what the guest was saying.

"That was the Knight that killed Misty and Trevor," Levi explained calmly. "We avenged them, just now. It's not over yet though..."

"I didn't know Misty that well," Grace added sternly, watching the elevator reach its destination. "But I do know one thing for sure, what she would want is for you to keep fighting no matter what, and get stronger so nothing like this ever happens again."

A noticeable smile formed on Levi's face, though it was weak due to the obvious anguish he was still feeling.

"She actually told me she wanted me to get stronger on day," Levi told her quietly, looking up at the stubborn woman. "Grace, when we get back to the rest of the group, I'll ask Serena to let you join us. Even though you have your faults, you proved that there's good in yo-"

"I'd hate to rain on your parade, but..." Grace interrupted, pausing to tap on the window, which showed several Promethean Knights running down the theater hallways. "...I think we got something more important to worry about right now."

* * *

Demealla shoved the zombie Celebi into the trashcan underneath the painting of Rome, smiling once it started making humorous wails.

After the disgusting carcass failed to exit the waste container, the former Zoroark returned her attention to the mob of undead fairy-type Pokémon, who were now in the process of getting sliced to pieces by humanoid robots that seemingly came from nowhere.

One of the machines suddenly leaped on Dawn, its helmet opening to show a glowing blue skull that roared at the innocent coordinator. Dawn screamed at the top of her lungs in pure fright, struggling to escape before a zombie Florges spat a translucent pink fluid all over the machine's back.

The robotic entity's armor dissolved immediately, the rest of it melting away due to whatever properties the fluid of the undead Florges possessed.

One of the remaining machines began shooting hardlight beams at the zombie fairy-type in response to its obvious threat, blowing several holes in its body until it was dead, before having another zombie Florges spitting a waterfall's worth of the pink gel-like fluid, melting away its upper abdomen entirely as the rest of its body melted into a puddle of liquid metal. However, it too suffered getting torn apart by the barrage of orange energy beams from the surviving homicidal robot.

The last of the vicious warriors took a glance at Demealla, and raised its sword as it jumped over to her where she was standing as if it was going to attack her, moving too fast for her to escape.

_Great...that silver piece of shit is going to put an end to me too, _she thought angrily, looking away at Dawn and Seraph due to preferring to avoid having the metallic demon being the last thing she'd see. _I'm gonna be missing out on some really good stuff, being at Ash and Serena's wedding, seeing Peppy evolving into a Zoroark, and giving him what he's wanted for years. I know Delia can take good care of him, she can defi-_

Demealla's train of thought was interrupted when the warrior jumped on her, knocking her to the floor just when it prepared to impale her with its glowing blue sword.

"Go on, do it you worthless screw up," she snarled furiously. "Quit standing there like a bitch and get it over with!"

The artificial creature grunted sadistically, nodding as it made ready to fufill its desire before an energy beam blasted its head clean off of its torso.

_Where did that come from? _Demealla thought, peering at the elevator and staring at the two within in complete surprise.

Levi and Grace walked into the hallway towards his two traveling companions, staring at his new rifle at the same time in slight amusement, ignoring that was walking over a demolished Promethean.

"Dawn, Seraph...are you two alright?" he inquired, stopping when Demealla hugged him tightly from behind, so hard that he couldn't breath.

"I owe you for that," she told him, her grip becoming tighter every second. "Anything I can do to repay yo-"

"Please...let...me...breath," he wheezed, almost dropping the hardlight rifle from the lack of air.

"Sorry about that," she laughed in embarrassment, releasing him while she stepped in front to make eye-contact. "In all seriousness, for that I really got to do something special. I do have _something_ in mind already, something we'd both eventually want more than almost anything. But I'll have to make this a surprise and it's going to have to wait until we get out of this mess."

The Pokémon trainer nodded at the former illusion-master's proposal, appearing saddened for a reason.

"I think we should get back to Serena and tell her what happened," Grace informed them, looking ahead. "I know the quickest way back, so just follow me, and try not to say anything related to one of Trip's obsessions..."

Grace marched down the hallway that led to the upper deck, forcing Dawn and Seraph to jog in order to keep up with her, while Levi and Demealla chose to casually follow them without feeling paranoia.

* * *

_**A few minutes later...**_

"I've met most of the people here in the past," the Demealla informed him in a straightforward manner, after telling Levi her life's history. "And met some of the others recently, but you and I haven't really gotten to know each other yet. What's your story?"

_I was hoping nobody would ask me this again, _he thought to himself, nearly cringing. _Nevertheless, it's nothing to hide, in spite of the obvious negatives._

"The earliest parts of my life weren't anything too remarkable," he began, taking a deep breath before continuing. "I moved around a few regions before settling in a region west of Unova, it was a region full of Pokémon and people who always acted strange depending on what day it was and the season. Not that I minded though, they were generous and performed acts of kindness to all the visitors.

"I didn't really know what I wanted to do with my life when I was that young, until one day when I saw one of the Kalos league matches on TV. That was the first time I ever saw Ash Ketchum, back when me and my siblings were little kids and Ash was ten years old. Even though we saw him lose eventually, Ash still became their idol, and the amount of badges he collected sort of inspired me to become a Pokémon trainer. Although, I didn't exactly want to go on a journey at first, and didn't think Ash was actually interesting. However one day during the special event when a gym leader usually visits our nation's public schools, the former gym leader Misty..."

Levi closed his eyes tightly, pausing briefly at the thought of his dead friend, and struggled to keep a somewhat balanced attitude.

"...when Misty visited our school one day," he moved on. "She showed us all the basics of Pokémon training. She was somewhat frustrated with me at first because I had difficultly learning new things and hardly spoke any of her language, but me and my classmates became friends with her eventually after we helped her make it back to her hotel because bike was fried by an unknown electric Pokémon. She said this was the second time her bike suffered such a fate."

Levi's left eye twitched after he heard a giggle from Demealla, and tried to mentally dismiss it due to the implications of what Pokémon it was and who it belonged to.

"...Anyways," he continued, remembering how his life went up to the present moment. "My classmates and I spent the free time we had later that week with Misty before she was supposed to go home, and she told us all about the adventures she had over the years, including the ones with Ash. As I said, I didn't initially think Ash was that interesting, but the stories Misty shared with us changed my mind. We also practiced Pokémon battling, I used rental Pokémon while Misty used her own. I didn't do well at all, even though Misty was going easy on us. But she encouraged us to get better, and said that we could probably be good trainers if we really wanted to.

"Then one Saturday morning, Misty was about to go back on a plane back to Kanto. Saying goodbye to her wasn't the easiest thing for me to do, I must say. Before she left, Misty reminded us that we'll always be friends, no matter how far apart we lived. The last thing she asked me to do until we met again was to go on a journey and challenge a Pokémon league. I didn't have to win, all I had to do was just give it a try. She wanted us to experience it, whether we could be Pokémon Masters or not. Then her plane left, and I decided to carry out Misty's wish, even though my dream career had little to do with Pokémon battling.

"I started with the Hoenn region, but when I got to Littleroot, things weren't exactly that peaceful. A group known as the Covenant Remnant from another corner of the universe came to the region when they were searching for Jirachi, and they started raiding the town for it. In doing so, they killed the police and shut down all the townspeople's ways of communicating with law enforcement outside.

"I had no Pokémon, Professor Birch had already left the town, and I didn't know how to use a gun. There was nothing I could do to help the people of Littleroot town, so I had no choice other than escaping. Not that I would have been able to make a difference to begin with...

"Fortunately, none of the Covenant soldiers wanted to follow me, and I wasn't attacked by any wild Pokémon on my to Oldale Town, but that was because they were hiding from the raiders they sent to search for Jirachi. The Covenant Remnant also went around killing wild Pokémon because they thought they were taking up too much "valuable space".

"Again, there wasn't anything I could do about this, until I met an Eevee on my way to Rustboro City. I had only one pokeball, and I didn't want to waste it trying to catch a Pokémon who didn't seem cooperative at all. I chose to ignore that Eevee and continue on, but it seemed to really want to play. At first, I didn't recognize the gender, until it began exhibiting the traits of a female personality. She ran off to the outside of Rustboro City, as if she was trying to play a game with me. Fortunately, the Covenant wasn't there, and I had plenty of time for that. The Eevee made all kinds of poorly drawn things in the dirt that I didn't understand, like she was making tries at testing me, and drew me into another forest.

"Then, she landed on my head after hanging in a tree branch and stole my hat. She ran away with it, and I did my best to chase after her so I could get it back. She finally stopped when she reached a pond, and it looked like she was going to throw it in the water, but dropped it when I got there. Then she tried to talk to me, and of course I didn't know what she was saying, I did my best to explain to her that I couldn't understand what Pokémon say to me. After she realized this, she simplified it by pointing her paw at me, then at herself and the hat.

"It took me a few minutes of thinking to put together in mind what this was all about, and then I got what she was doing. It was a determination test, the Eevee wanted a Pokémon trainer who not only had the will to succeed, but would care deeply about her and was willing to help a friend get what they wanted. Because of this, Eevee was willing to join me, although I had to let her keep my hat.

"Now that I had my very first Pokémon, Eevee and I focused on developing our friendship before we actually challenged Roxanne at the Rustboro City gym, as well as train a little bit because of the possibility that we wouldn't be able to defeat the gym leader on our first try. Besides, I wanted to take a look around to see what the city had to offer to travelers beforehand.

"Sadly, I was denied the opportunity to challenge the gym when the Hoenn branch of the Pokémon Association shut down all the gyms in response to Covenant's raids. I understood it though but was _very_ disappointed, although they did need the strongest trainers available...more than they actually knew.

"Even though her gym was closed, I wanted to meet Roxanne anyway for tips on how to better myself at Pokémon training. I tried to find where her house was, and that's when the Covenant decided to launch an attack on Rustboro City. They went on a brutal rampage and slaughtered so many innocent people and Pokémon in the process. Roxanne came out and tried to stop them, and they ended up killing her too.

"Eventually, they got fed up with trying to look for Jirachi here, and decided to use their starship's weapons to burn down the city. That's when the Pokémon Association came in and tried to drive them off. Unfortunately for the Covenant Remnant they were slightly outmatched in the fight due to the fact that their ship was merely a poorly armed corvette, and when the Covenant Remnant realized that, they decided to go to the engine room to blow up the ship so they could sacrifice themselves to destroy the Pokémon Association and take everyone they could with them.

"They crashed their ship into the Pokémon Association's platoon, and what remained of it exploded and took Rustboro City with it. I managed to get out of there just in time, although a commander named Metilius and some of his fellow troops survived too. He blamed me for the deaths of his comrades, and vowed to get vengeance any way he could. So he looked up every piece of information he could get on me to find a way to make me pay for the deaths of the soldiers who literally raised him as a child. However, he disappeared when Officer Jenny initiated a manhunt for the surviving members of the Covenant Remnant, and I was given false relief under the assumption that the Covenant would never harm anyone again. I was horribly mistaken...

"When I ran to Slateport City, the military had arrived to deal with the last of the Covenant who arrived to our world. Even though the Hoenn region was nice, I came to the conclusion that I should try another league. Even though no journey was purely safe, I wasn't born a soldier, and the Covenant Remnant was just too much for me to handle at such a young age. I thought I'd try my luck with Unova, so I got on a boat heading there, and that's when I met my longtime adversary that I'm thankful I'll never have to deal with _again, _who happened to be Paul, and something worse happened..." Levi closed his eyes, replaying the bitter memories in his head while also recalling the positive ones that occurred after.

"Paul was quite a dick to everyone he encountered, and he certainly lived up to the reputation he had in Sinnoh. Verbally abusing his Pokémon, saying 'pathetic' every five seconds, having a conceited bitter attitude...I'm still surprised somebody didn't throw him off a boat before today. Anyway, I also ran into one of my old classmates on the ship to Unova. He was also going on a journey to challenge a region's league, and therefore I finally got a traveling companion. But the day was bittersweet, because right before we were heading casino, Metilius came out of nowhere, and sent his Tentacruel out to kill us. He said he wanted to do two things; get revenge while testing the Covenant's superior Pokémon training. Metilius had the Tentacruel poison my friend, and my Eevee managed to stop its move before it could get me.

"Eevee fought with all of her strength, but just couldn't defeat it. Then, just when Metilius was about to have the Tentacruel kill both of us, somebody had his Torterra knock it out and literally threw Metilius off of the boat. The funny thing was that the Torterra belonged to Paul, but he wasn't doing it to save me, he just wanted to show off and prove that he was better than me. Paul walked away then, he didn't even want to help me get my friend to the ship's sickbay.

"Fortunately, some good did come out this day. My Eevee evolved into a Sylveon as a result of the friendship we formed, and she helped me carry my friend over there. Finally, when the ship got to Unova, he was immediately sent to the only hospital that had antidotes for this type of poisoning that were compatible with humans. Sadly, antidote was unable to save him and he was going to die soon, there was nothing anyone could do. Then he told everyone that he wanted me to win the Unova league before he died.

"When I heard that, I did choose to challenge the league even though my skills were below mediocre . I caught whatever Pokémon I could find, and did my best to make it to a championship competition. I lost before the semi-finals, and left after facing some incoherent criticisms from the other people there. When I saw Paul again, he ridiculed me and my Pokémon, and told me that if I was in Ash's place during his journey in Sinnoh, he'd kill the Chimchar Ash got to spare it from the humiliation it would get from me being such a mediocre trainer.

"Then, Paul went over to the hospital my friend was staying at, and told me what he said to him on the way out. I knew my friend was going to feel terrible, and I followed Paul back outside to throw him in the dumpster, then went back to cheer my friend up. When I got up there, I saw his mother there hugging a nurse while crying. I looked in there and saw that his skin was unusually pale, and I knew what was wrong. Nobody had to tell me, I already knew he was dead." Levi sighed bitterly, and shook his head in profound remorse at the memory of his next action at that time.

"When I left the hospital, surprisingly I didn't feel anything. I stayed silent the whole time, thought of ideas to get away from this for good, and to never run into Paul ever again. I looked for a region that I could guarantee Paul would never return to, and the funny thing is that region was Sinnoh. At this point, I was even considering finding somewhere to live so I could do everything possible to prevent these memories from coming back for good. The only from the past that I kept was my Pokémon, and I severed connections with anything that could remind me of those terrible experiences. I wanted to forget about the Covenant, Metilius, Paul, the disaster in Hoenn, and the death of my friend. I even skipped talking to my former classmates for a few years.

"A few years later I finally reached the Sinnoh region, and I met Dawn for the first time. I saw her practicing a new sport with her Piplup, and he was busy trying to whistle a song instead. I decided to help out and try to get Piplup to listen to her, but that made things even more complicated and he acted even stranger. Funniest thing I saw so far, and Dawn agreed also. When we introduced ourselves to each other, we shared our lives' stories, both the good and the bad. Then we decided to travel the region together, and I also let Sylveon do what she wanted more than anything, and that was to travel outside her pokeball.

"Dawn came back to Sinnoh because she wanted to take part in the new contests, and I wanted to travel for the sake of it. Along the way we met Seraph, who was struggling chasing his first Pokémon as well, and like mine it was an Eevee. Seraph is one of those guys who was inspired by Ash and wanted to be a Pokémon Master, and also be an actor as well. His goal in life was to have all sorts of careers and be a role model to society, to teach everyone if they work hard enough, they can fulfill whatever dream they have. I didn't know how to react to that at the time, seeing as how farfetched it seemed to me. Dawn however, encouraged him greatly. That's how the three of us got together, and we've traveled for years up until this point and plan to continue after this trip. There's a lot more to this, but I'll save it for when we get out of here."

Levi saw an appalled look on Demealla's face, the kind of look he hadn't seen since he caught Conway spying on Dawn when she was sleeping a few years before the trio departed for the Orange Islands.

"Sounds like you got your fair share of positives and negatives in your life too," she said, sounding astonished. "Oh yeah, I did want to ask you something. During all those years you were with your friends, did you ever have a girlfriend?"

Levi growled furiously in thorough disgust, feeling the undesired memories he loathed returning to him in spite of his resistance to it. Regardless of how hard he fought to keep them out of his mind, they successfully violated his demands to stay out and entered effortlessly.

"Demealla, I can't tell you happened...the memories are way too awful," he answered bitterly, recalling the terrible experiences of the past. "I'd prefer to stay away from dating, it's not worth the risk."

"Are you sure about that?" she asked with an amorous tone, taking hold of his hand and moving slightly closer to him with a warm smile on her face. "I get how you feel, but I promise I won't-"

"_Guys, you have to get back up to where I am quick!_" Serena interrupted through the audio speakers. "_Trip's going to sink the ship to get rid of the zombies and the new threats. Speaking of the new threats, we're going to need to get everyone to defend ourselves from them!_"

_Crap,_ Levi thought anxiously, before hearing gunfire in the distance.

* * *

_Just when I thought this couldn't get any worse, _Serena thought miserably, watching everyone scrambling into the room desperately. _The day just keeps getting more and more difficult every minute, literally. _

Luis was the first to make it inside, followed by Ash and everyone else who she spoke with earlier, and somebody she hoped wouldn't show up due to another guest, that person being Iris.

_Thank Arceus that Levi isn't here right now,_ Serena thought in relief, remembering how the two didn't get along at all. _The last thing we need somebody else other than Trip and the zombies getting thrown off the ship_.

"Okay...everyone, I found out something that's going to complicate things even further," Serena explained, doing everything she could to stay calm. "I'm sure you found out about the Prometheans by now, and these guys are more dangerous than even Trip. I saw video recordings earlier of how some of the zombie Pokémon managed to destroy them, but there's simply too many of them for Trip's Pokémon, us, and the zombie Pokemon to defeat."

"So what do we do, let them kill us?!" Iris exclaimed obnoxiously.

"No, there is a way to defeat them without another loss," Serena answered respectfully, though she was clearly forcing herself to avoid lashing out. "Unfortunately, we're going to have to try to get Trip to help us. His powers brought them here, but they can also destroy all the Prometheans here _and _the zombie Pokémon. We just have to convince him-"

"What, no way! You're seriously considering dooming us all?" Iris argued harshly. "You know what Trip is willing to do, how do we know he's not going to kill us when we come looking for him? And how do you know we can convince him to save us?"

"Do _you_ have a better idea?" Serena questioned in a combative way, her eyes showing hostile aggression.

"Yeah, we let Trip do what he wants and get off the ship before it sinks," Iris replied arrogantly. "Everybody wins!"

"Excuse me seniorita, but what if the Prometheans or zombies manage to get off too and make it to an island or region?" Luis said to Iris, awestruck at her idea. "Along with Trip too? They'll definitely be a problem for everyone else if that happens."

"So what?" Iris snorted, turning her back to Serena. "Better them than m-err, us! Besides, what good have they done lately anyway?"

"Oh, Ash honey! Remember the tooth fairy's sister and how she promised you money?" Serena called out, catching Ash's attention instantly. "She's right here in front of me, disguised as Iris!" The jungle-loving girl instantly fled the room, letting out angered screams per second as the famous Pallet Town trainer pursued her.

"How Ash actually had the patience to travel with her will always be a mystery to me," Luis remarked, returning his focus to Serena. "I guess you're the leader then, eh Serena? If that's true, then we'll need you to come up with a plan quickly. I don't know if Trip will figure out he can destroy the Prometheans, and they might kill him before we can get to him. And even if he lives, how are we going to keep him under control?"

Before anyone could say anymore, a blood curling scream echoed from outside, and Serena knew right away that somebody else was about to die.


End file.
